If you follow the housing market (foreclosures, loan problems,
etc.), it is easy to see why dimensional lumber used to build is
not in demand.

Everyone was hoping the new Georgia Pacific mill in Clarendon
County would be up and running in September 2011. However, it has
not started taking wood as of Halloween 2011.

Of course, if you look at the market for plywood, oriented
strand board and other 4- by 8-foot dimensional products, it does
not make sense to start up a mill if there is no market for the
product.

The good news is pulpwood prices.

Pulpwood products - to include paper, paperboard, wood pulp,
uncoated kraft paper/paperboard - have been the leading forest
product export for South Carolina. The top five customers are
Italy, Germany, Korean Republic, India and Belgium.

Rumors within the forestry community are that a new sawmill is
coming to Orangeburg County. Within the forestry community, you
cannot keep a good secret very long.

The first time I heard something about a pine sawmill coming to
Orangeburg County was back in May or June of this year. The next
week, the forestry community was aglow with hush-hush whispers
about the possibility of a new sawmill.

The company that is looking to expand is from Germany and like
all companies, it is looking hard to find the best place to put its
mill. Ergo, Orangeburg County and the surrounding counties are
competing with a place in North Carolina (I do not know where).
Both places are working hard to vie for this important market.

While both markets offer a place to build the mill and tax
advantages, Orangeburg County does have one great advantage. We are
very close to the Port of Charleston. The mill will be exporting
some, most, or all of its product, and this will reduce its cost of
getting the product to a port.

Most likely, the largest difference between choosing Orangeburg
County or North Carolina is the forest landowner diversity. In
North Carolina, the area that the German mill people are looking at
consists of three very large landowners to sell them the sawtimber
trees. The landowners manage the forest lands for investment
purposes (meaning that raising and selling trees is their number
one concern).

In South Carolina, we have thousands of landowners, some of whom
never want to cut a stick of wood on their land. So the largest
obstacle, from what I have heard, is convincing the mill executives
that we have a huge number of forest landowners who very much want
a sawtimber market and will sell their trees to the mill (as well
as that our landowners are raising sawtimber).

One rumor or thought going through the community is that the new
mill will compete with Dempsey Wood Products. This is not true.
While both are sawmills, Dempsey's niche is totally different in
the raw products it buys and its output. I believe that having both
mills in Orangeburg County will be synergistic and will complement
each other.

Back in July, I was told we would have an answer by mid=August
as to which state would get the new sawmill. Those weeks are gone,
and we still do not know.

With all the time that has elapsed, the glow has dimmed. Will we
be the lucky ones?

Beth Richardson is an agent with the Clemson Extension Service
in Orangeburg County.

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